


Moving On

by LiberAmans214



Series: The Last Ride [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Background Jimmy Novak (Supernatural), Castiel and Dean Winchester Need to Use Their Words, Castiel is Hurt, Castiel should get a makeover, Claire is Awesome, Dean Winchester Angst, Follows The Destiel Breakup, Gen, Hunter Claire Novak, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, Post-Canon, Season/Series 15 Spoilers, Supernatural 15x03, Um emotionally, very short spec
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-13 03:23:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21237344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiberAmans214/pseuds/LiberAmans214
Summary: Castiel needs to move on. Claire's the best listener he's ever met. And for the first time, Claire sees so much of her dad in the angel who looks exactly like her dad.





	Moving On

Once he’s out - and has used up a whole minute in just breathing in the free air, outside the bunker door, trying to get his thoughts to align, Cas walks.

(He doesn’t want to borrow a car, for they’ll miss it when he never comes back. And he doesn’t take a bus, or ask for rides - because that would mean knowing where he wants to go. And he doesn’t. So he walks.)

All Cas wants to do is move on. And all he wishes for, is to know how.

And that’s when he finds Claire. It’s fate - has to be, for luck isn’t that beneficent, is it? She’s herself, as she always is - but also grown, and very unlike the _child_ who just wanted Castiel to give her dad back. She’s cut her hair short, to give the monsters less to catch hold of, and she’s started driving her own truck to be able to ditch public transport. Her eyes are wiser, her smile more mature, and Castiel thinks she’s somehow managed to grow taller too.

But this way or that, she’s still Claire.

Over dinner, at the kind of towndiner which makes Cas reasonably nostalgic, he tells Claire _all_ of it. He’s tried to ask her about Jody and Alex and the others - just once about Kaia, but she doesn’t seem to want to be the one speaking at all. And when she asks him back, beer in hand, expression curious - about the Winchesters, about him, and Jack, and it all - he can’t help himself. He wants to say it, for the first time ever, he _wants_ to talk - say the things he’d wanted to say to Dean and Sam when they hadn’t been there, when no one had been there. Since no one has been there.

And Claire is a good listener. Cas had had no idea how much he needed this.

*

When he’s done, his voice trembles, and before they adjourn, Claire has just one thing to say. “Cas. I don’t think you’ve had anyone sad this to you yet, but he needs you. They all do. He just doesn’t deserve you, anymore.”

Castiel can only look at her. “I -”

“Listen to me. You need to stop thinking about this.” Claire clears her throat. Stands up, and digs out her wallet. “Starting right now. I’m staying at a decent motel, there’ll be plenty of vacant rooms for you there. And tomorrow,” Claire drops the bills she’d taken from the purse on the table, and puts a glass on them. When she looks at Cas, she’s smiling bright, and it’s different in the sense that it’s just the same as her smile from all those years back, and not the one she’s been wearing all evening. “Tomorrow, you’re spending the day with me.”

“Am I?”

“Yep. We’re going shopping.” Claire informs him, and her eyes are kinder than her sarcastic tone. “You told Dean you’re moving on, aren’t you? Can’t exactly move on while you’re still wearing yesterday’s clothes.”

“These aren’t yesterday’s.” Cas squints, amused. “They’re -”

“From eleven years ago. Trust me, I know.” Claire pats his shoulder, and he stands up on cue. Of course, she knows. It used to be her dad’s.

*

(Later that night, just before they part for their respective rooms, next to each other - Claire surprises Cas by reaching into his personal space and holding her arms out in a hug. Cas obviously doesn’t mind, and lets Claire wrap herself around him, and pull him down to her level, as she whispers, “They did to you, what I used to think _you_ would do to my dad. You didn’t, you actually cared. And I’m sorry, Cas. I get that they’re the Winchesters, and at the end of the day, we’d both fight on their side, _for_ them - but I want you to know I’m on your side.” And as she pulls back, she adds. “And you’re going to stick around with me, okay?” And Cas nods. Because, of course he will. For Claire heard it all, and knows of how little use he is - and wants him to _stay_. And when has that ever happened for Cas before?)

**Author's Note:**

> Let's just hope for the best, for the rest of the season. Or, uhhh, we could always hold hands and sob our hearts out. Keep it Sailing, and I wish you a fantastic day ~


End file.
